How high of an O G can I go for on a yeast bed from a 1.050 beer?
Just for the heck of it I’m thinking of seeing how high an alc. % I can hit without any kind of freezing, distilling or fortifying.
The 1.050 beer would probably be fermented with WLP001 which I’ve heard can go pretty high. Or maybe WLP099.
I’m expecting this to be a somewhat long term experiment.
How high do you want to go? I’ve used 1.056 slurry for a previous batch up to about 13-14% ABV.
Building up a big pitch of yeast off a smaller gravity beer is the best way to go in my opinion. My biggest beer has been a 1.142 barleywine that finished over 16%. I grew up the yeast (WLP 037) starting with a 1.040ish Brown Ale, then using some of the slurry for a 1.065ish Old Ale. The barleywine went on the full cake from the Old Ale and went down without a fight.
If that means sequential wort/sugar feedings are in bounds, then getting to 20% or so is pretty straightforward.
I was thinking around 14-15%. I’ve read people claiming that high and more with Chico.